Foundations and Applications

Hilaire Chardonnet

FRENCH CHEMIST
1839–1924

French chemist Hilaire Chardonnet, who invented rayon.

Louis-Marie-Hilaire Bernigaud, comte de Chardonnet, born in Besancon,
France, is credited with having developed artificial silk, which came to
be known as rayon. In the 1860s Chardonnet, originally trained as an
engineer, assisted Louis Pasteur in an effort to save the French silk
industry from an epidemic affecting silkworms.

In 1878, while working in a photographic darkroom, Chardonnet accidentally
overturned a bottle of nitrocellulose. When he started to clean up the
spill, he saw that the nitrocellulose had become viscous due to
evaporation. As he wiped it, he noticed long, thin strands of fiber
resembling those of silk.

Chardonnet began to experiment further with the nitrocellulose. He worked
with the silkworm's food, mulberry leaves, turning them into a
cellulose pulp with nitric and sulfuric acids, and stretched the resulting
pulp into fibers. This fiber, cellulose nitrate, could be used in
garments, but it was highly flammable. Some garments made of this early
artificial silk reportedly burst into flame when a lit cigarette was
nearby. Chardonnet solved this problem by denitrating these fibers with
ammonium sulfide, which reduced the flammability of the material without
sacrificing its strength.

Chardonnet received his first patent for artificial silk in 1884 and began
manufacturing the material in 1891. In 1924 artificial silk came to be
known as rayon.